Exporting Costs and Multi-Product Shipments

In this paper,employing Transaction Level data for Russian imports,we explore the role of multi-product shipments in explaining shipping patterns across countries. First, we document that firms from more developed countries include on average more different products into a single shipment. We then show that such multi-product shipments can potentially explain why more developed countries tendtohaveahighernumberofshipmentsperperiodwithaloweraveragequantity and value. The mechanism considered in the paper is based on that multi-product shipments allow splitting fixed costs per shipment across many products and, therefore, reducing total shipment costs. As a result, more developed countries tend to have lower fixed costs per shipment. Finally, we construct a simple partial equilibrium model that enables us to quantify the role of multi-product shipments in determining shipping costs